John Martin has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, Cornell Law Review). Here is the abstract: Under U.S. campaign finance jurisprudence, electoral candidates have the right to self-fund their campaigns without limitation. The majority of self-funded candidates do so by… Continue reading

I’ve chronicled the recent, astonishing increase in spending on election litigation. Sine 2015, election donors may contribute to “election recounts and contests and other legal proceedings,” above and beyond individual candidate campaign contribution limits. The total from the first 18… Continue reading

They say no good deed goes unpunished, but this one mercifully was rejected 6-0. I’ve been very critical of Facebook for how it has handled election-related content. But these grants by Zuckerberg and Chan (his spouse) were extremely helpful… Continue reading

Cailin Slattery post.

New report from Jennifer Heerwig and Brian McCabe. Executive Summary: The Democracy Voucher program in Seattle completed itsthird election in 2021. The 2021 cycle featured an open seatmayoral race, two at-large city council contests, and the racefor city attorney. Six… Continue reading

NYT: A rising tide of lightly regulated outside money is pouring into New York State: As of Thursday, with the Aug. 23 primary date looming, outside entities have spent about $9 million in state congressional primaries, according to data maintained… Continue reading

Politico: The Federal Election Commission, the nation’s chief campaign finance watchdog agency, gave its blessing to a program proposed by Google on Thursday that will effectively allow federal campaigns and other political committees to bypass spam filters and land in… Continue reading

Cal Matters: Sift through the campaign contributions to Robert Rivas, the Salinas Democrat angling to become the next speaker of the California Assembly, and a name keeps popping up: Govern For California.The organization’s statewide chapter gave the maximum $9,800… Continue reading

AP has this story on the ruling, which appears to rely on the Purcell doctrine: A federal judge on Thursday denied a request to block campaign finance provisions of a ballot measure approved by Alaska voters in 2020, finding that… Continue reading